Thermal conductors are widely used to cool electronic components, such as integrated circuits, whose performance can be adversely effected by excessive heat. Keeping the junction temperatures of such components as low as possible ensures longer mean-time-to-failure rates thereby prolonging the operating lifetime of such components. Such conductors cool components by dissipating heat from a higher temperature surface along a conducting material to a cooler surface such as a heat sink. Conventional thermal conductors are well known in the art with examples of such conductors being found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,535 to Chao et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,423 to Larson et al. Alternatively, some components are convection cooled where the heat from a hot surface is physically removed, such as by air from an electric fan. Conventional convection conductors are well known in the art with examples of such conductors being found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,386 to Frey et al and U.S. Pat. No. 5,258,888 to Korinsky.
Conventional systems employed for conduction cooling and convection cooling of electronic components suffer from a major drawback. They typically do not provide any EMI shielding capability for the component being cooled. Accordingly, electromagnetic magnetic radiation from the component being cooled can interfere with and prevent other components in an electronic device from functioning properly. In addition, the component being cooled is susceptible to electromagnetic interference from other device components and/or from sources outside the device.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to overcome the foregoing drawback of conventional conduction and convection cooling systems by providing an inexpensive, easy to install thermal conductor having EMI shielding capability for electronic components.